


A Brief Introduction to Pre-Modern History

by Glinda



Category: Merlin (BBC)
Genre: AU, Community: camelotsolstice, Elemental Magic, Multi, OT4
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-02-13
Updated: 2011-02-13
Packaged: 2017-10-15 15:28:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,910
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/162242
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Glinda/pseuds/Glinda
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Arthur is fire, Merlin is air, Gwen is earth, Morgana is water: scenes from the end of the world.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Brief Introduction to Pre-Modern History

**Author's Note:**

> Written for cor_leonis_1961 as part of the camelot solstice ficathon. I watched The Fifth Element just before I wrote this, it seems to have bled through a little. I hoped it might up the crack quotient, instead it just seems to have upped the melodrama content. Goes AU from the beginning of Season 3.

When they first discovered the fissure in the ground, it had seemed huge, yet it had grown and in turn was practically tiny in comparison to the creature that had emerged from it. The creature itself seemed almost entirely composed of eyes, teeth and claws, and as such seemed more like a creature borne of mortal nightmares than anything the earth might spit out.

"Morgana," said Gwen in a strangely calm voice, "I know you love your sister dearly, so don't take this the wrong way, but you have to admit that sometimes her plans are not always the best."

"Gwen," said Morgana in voice rather more tinged with hysteria than she'd like to admit, "sometimes Morgause makes bloody terrible plans. Why do you think I came back to Camelot for help?"

"Point made, truly terrible plan, need a better one to stop it. However, in the meantime, can we make the temporary plan of getting as far away from this…creature…she's awakened as possible?" asked Gwen tensely.

"Running away sounds an excellent plan right now," agreed Morgana.

As Morgana and Gwen beat a hasty retreat from the creature, their hands found each other on instinct, only breaking the link when they reached the relative safety of their horses.

Behind them the beast roared with frustration as the boggy, clinging morass that the dry ground beneath its feet had become, mysteriously re-solidified around its feet.

~

Merlin and Arthur trudged along the rutted road back from the lake to the castle. A great deal had occurred that afternoon that both of them would rather have forgotten.

"So Kelpies," said Arthur, his voice laden with false cheer, "not exactly common this far south, are they?"

"To be fair Cockitrices aren't generally found this far west of Rome and yet I distinctly remember you killing one," said Merlin.

"So powerful sorcery is involved then?" asked Arthur

"Yup, someone pretty powerful brought that creature down here," said Merlin absently.

"More powerful than you?" asked Arthur.

"Nah, just with less self-control," responded Merlin lightly.

"I didn't think that was even possible," replied Arthur.

It had been a very localised forest fire, and very effective at driving the Kelpie back into the lake, but Merlin was still a little unnerved by the way Arthur grabbing his shoulder had affected his magic. It didn't help that he could see that underneath Arthur's bravado he was discomfited by it too. They still had to find away to kill the beast too.

"We're going to need an awful lot of rowan wood," pondered Merlin aloud.

"Handily," replied Arthur, clapping Merlin firmly across the shoulders, "I know a knight who's owed a favour, by someone with a lot of that to spare."

~

The four of them sat round in Morgana's chambers in the pale half-light before dawn. The dark circles beneath her eyes spoke of her terrible nightmares but her eyes themselves were clear and focused.

"For some time now, I've seen the four of us in my dreams, represented by the four elements. Arthur as fire, Gwen as earth, Merlin as air and myself as water. Before now, I thought it a metaphor, a sign to tell me how the four of us needed to work together to save Camelot from those who would destroy her," she paused for a moment and her companions tried not to think about the way she meant both Uther and Morgause, "but now I've come to believe that there is something greater at risk."

"You fear it will spill out into the rest of the kingdoms of Albion?" asked Arthur.

Morgana shook her head sadly and gestured ‘bigger' with her hands.

"You think your sister is going to end the world, don't you?" said Merlin resignedly.

"No, but I'm almost certain she's going to try," responded Morgana.

Gwen, who had remained quiet up to this point, broke in, "you don't think those visions are a metaphor, do you? You think they're a plan?"

"They're the only one we have," said Morgana quietly, watching as Merlin paced the room anxiously. Arthur stole her attention back.

"Can we trust these visions? By your own admission, Morgause has manipulated your visions before. How do we know she doesn't know about your change of heart and is using you again?" he asked, worry written across his face.

"I've learned to recognise that. These feel true," replied Morgana. She took a deep breath before continuing. "The question is, do you trust me?"

"Yes, I trust you," said Gwen instantly, sliding her hand into Morgana's. Morgana smiled gratefully back at her, relieved that the friendship she had long feared lost had been recovered.

Arthur stared hard at Morgana for a long moment before nodding and taking her other hand, "Yes. I shouldn't but I do."

The three of them watched Merlin as he paced and ran distracted fingers through his hair. Sometimes Morgana forgot that she wasn't the only one with a prophesising, manipulative magical mentor with dubious morals. She wondered if the Dragon not being human made him easier or harder to forgive.

"Merlin," said Gwen carefully after a considerable while had passed.

He stopped his pacing and turned to them face torn.

"I want to trust you Morgana, desperately, but I just can't," he said regretfully at last.

"I can't say I blame you, I came back here expressly to be a spy and I let my sister try to feed you to a swarm of Sekrets, I wouldn't trust me in your shoes. I don't exactly trust you either, what with the whole poison business" said Morgana with a deep sigh, "but, I'm willing to try if you are."

Merlin nodded slowly.

"I want to try too," he said quietly, taking hold of Arthur and Gwen's outstretched hands.

"Well that's a start, at least," said Arthur with a wry smile.

~

Morgause paced the floor of her rather picturesquely ruined castle, while undead soldiers and nervously alive messengers respectively strode and scurried about on her business. She turned on the messenger on his knees at her feet.

"Torture who you have to, Uther, Cenred, I don't care. Just bring me my sister. You have one day."

"Yes, my lady," gabbled the messenger nervously and fled. The soldiers followed in his wake to do her bidding.

It was a good plan, she was certain of it and Morgana's loyalty to her was unquestioning, her hatred for Uther complete. Something had clearly been done to her, Morgana needed to be back here at their castle where she was safe and then she would…see clearly again.

~

It had been long years since Gwen last watched Arthur and Morgana spar on the training ground. She had forgotten how much she used to enjoy watching them clash, the way they used everything they knew about each other to gain the advantage, the way they could read so much from each other's glance. It was something she had seen dozens of times when they were all younger, but it was different now, knowing how well the fought together. Now it raised the memories of Ealdor, of the four of them fighting together, four pieces of a greater whole. With that in mind she turned her attention back to Merlin, who was watching the fight with wary eyes, and framed her next question carefully.

"You're certain it will turn out this way? We've changed things before because of Morgana's visions why not this?" she asked.

"Little things yes, but this, this is destiny. I've been trying to fight it for years and its only made things worse. Him and me, we've got a destiny, and you're increasingly bound up in it. We're going to unite all Albion, create something that will be worthy of legends. And Morgana. Morgana will destroy everything we've built," said Merlin despairingly.

"What if she didn't, though, what if she was on our side?" Merlin opened his mouth to interrupt and Gwen placed her finger on his mouth to hush him a moment. "I've seen the power of the magic you can wield and you tell me you're still learning. If she really is the only one who could stop you when you're at your full power, if she really is as powerful as you believe, then what if that power was on our side instead of against it. Think what the two of you could achieve if you worked together. Isn't that worth fighting for?"

Merlin nodded silently, but when he looked up at her finally his eyes were wet with unshed tears.

"Who would stop us then?" he asked voice distant and lost, "what if the reason destiny pits us against us against each other because of the terrible things we might do if we worked together."

"I will," promised Gwen, "I know neither of you have been trained to have a particularly good moral compass when it comes to magic, but that's what you have Arthur and I for. We won't let you be consumed by it."

"How can you promise that?" exclaimed Merlin, "we might hurt you, either of you, even destroy you if you got in our way. Worse we might do terrible things for you, to give you both whatever you want."

"Then here and now I promise we won't ask you for such things. We will not abuse your faith in our ability to rule this kingdom we're building wisely. The four of us will act as checks and balances on each other and see that none of us is consumed by the power we'll share."

"You can't know that, you can't be sure," he whispered.

"Yes," said Gwen with absolute certainty as she laid her head on Merlin's shoulder, "I can."

~

Morgause held the sword point to Gwen's throat. For an apparently demure servant girl, she was proving to be a less pliant prisoner than many knights of the realm. But then, Morgause supposed, this was a girl who had presumed to impersonate her own mistress when kidnapped. Clearly a different tactic was required.

"Where is my sister?" demanded Morgause

Gwen stared back coolly along the length of the sword before responding. "I don't know. And even if I did know, I wouldn't tell someone like you."

"Why?" asked Morgause, before continuing in a sarcasm-laden voice. "What's wrong with me?"

"I seek to preserve life and peace. And you seem to want to destroy it." Said Gwen, never looking away.

"Oh child," said Morgause mockingly, "you could not be more wrong, let me show you."

Placing her sword down on a nearby table, Morgause instead lifted a large glowing sphere in one hand and carried it to the nearby balcony over-looking the courtyard.

"Life, which you so nobly strive to preserve, comes from destruction, disorder and chaos. Now consider this globe, simple, static, powerful in its own way but nothing special," she paused to heft it lightly in one hand before dashing it on the stones below. The action releasing a strange ethereal being apparently composed entirely of gases. Below various soldiers and minor sorcerers in her service ran about trying to contain it, while others held back to clean up the mess when it was finished. "Look at all those little people, suddenly so busy and full of life and action. Every act of mine causes work and action in others. Keeping my army and servants in employment so they can feed their families who can in turn grown up big and strong to serve me and have families of their own. You see, child, by causing a little destruction, I am in fact encouraging life. We're not really as different as you like to think."

"That you've had the privilege of never being a servant to anyone else, is painfully obvious at this point" said Gwen calmly, hefting Morgause's abandoned sword with the ease borne of long practice.

Morgause turned and began an incantation that would bring the sword back to her own hand. Gwen in turn merely snorted in derision and threw the sword away from them both.

"Please. Let us both stop pretending. We're neither of us going to kill the other. Morgana could no more forgive me for killing you than she would you for killing me; and we both know it. I'm only here because you think you can draw her back here to rescue me and she has more sense than that."

"You're very certain about that," said Morgause, disbelief colouring her voice.

"Yes, I am," replied Gwen with a secretive smile.

With timing so perfect Gwen suspected that someone had been listening to their conversation, chaos broke outside the castle walls. Two of Cenred's knights appeared and Morgause ordered them to return Gwen to her cell while she dealt with the incursion. Gwen went with a remarkable lack of resistance, which was largely to do with finding the knights strangely familiar. A familiarity borne out when they marched her all the way out of the castle into the woods where their mounts were waiting. At which point they removed their helmets to reveal Arthur and Morgana.

"I told Morgause you had more sense to come in person to rescue me," Gwen admonished Morgana as she hugged her tightly.

"Just enough to not come alone or without a plan," Morgana assured her through a face full of curls.

~

The battle with the beasts was fierce and bloody. It was probably wrong that Morgana hadn't felt as happy in years. There were only the four of them here, but she could feel each of her companions as they worked on their separate parts of the plan. Working together in almost perfect harmony, anticipating each other's actions and acting to compliment and assist. She caught Arthur's eye briefly and shared a brief grin before they both swung back into synchronous attack. This was where she belonged; she wondered how she could ever have doubted it.

Naturally that was the point where Morgana felt a sharp pain in her side. She stared down at her hand as it came away from her side covered in blood.

"Water falls," she said softly remembering a long ago dream. Her knees buckling beneath her against her will; Morgana fell.

~

The four of them arrived in the shadows of Stonehenge. Above them a storm was breaking. Carefully Arthur laid Morgana out on the ground in the centre of the henge while Merlin tried not to think about how much like a sacrifice she looked lying there. He'd bound her wound as best he could but she was still losing an awful lot of blood there. He'd never been here before and if he was honest the old henge gave him the creeps. It was so old, he'd known many stone circles in his time but they'd always felt benign and safe, this one felt knowing, as though it knew what was coming and was looking forward to the power that would be channelled through it.

Arthur broke the contemplative spell that Merlin found himself under by shaking Morgana awake.

"Come on Morgana, we followed your directions, we're here. How do we use the stones to stop the creatures Morgause has released?"

Morgana stared up at him blankly for a long moment before speaking.

"Wind blows... Fire Burns... Water Falls..." she broke off from her recitation to choke and the cough rattled ominously and wetly in her chest, setting off alarm bells in Merlin's head from long afternoons trailing after Gaius on his rounds. "Water falls, I'm falling Arthur, and I'm failing you all."

"You're doing fine Morgana, we're nearly there, we just need to get through this last trial and we can rest," Gwen assured her.

"What's the use? What's the point in saving the world from monsters when you see what people do to each other with and without magic."

"Because some things, are worth fighting for," said Merlin defiantly, "I have to believe that there good things that are worth fighting for."

"Like love? Goodness? Peace?" Morgana asked derision colouring her voice.

"Yes." Said Gwen and Arthur at the same time. Arthur continued, "Love is always worth fighting for."

"What is love to me, everyone I was taught to love lied to me and manipulated me, I'm destined to either destroy or protect. What use is there for me after this?" asked Morgana despair forcing the derision from her voice.

"We need you," Gwen insisted, looking up at the boys for confirmation.

"We love you," agreed Arthur kissing her forehead.

"You're part of us now," said Merlin coming to join them now as they helped her to her feet.

"And you're part of me," whispered Morgana sealing their vow.

Foreheads resting together and supporting each other in a tangle of limbs, four parts of a greater whole they waited for what would come.

Lightning struck the centre of the circle. Light spilled out from the henge and across the darkened land. The four people standing in the centre fell to the ground.

~

Dawn broke gently over the four of them.

"My head," said Arthur, "feels as though a horse kicked it."

"I'll see your horse kicked head and raise you being run over by an entire herd of horses," grumbled Merlin.

"I think I'm going to be sick," muttered Morgana into the grass, "did we win?"

"We're alive," said Gwen, smiling beatifically and infectiously up at the lightening sky.

"Sounds like a victory to me then," said Arthur.


End file.
